Founder of ESAS - Edgar Schiferli, the best associate bowler
A follower of the schools of Machiavelli, Bentham, Locke, Hobbes, Sutcliffe, Bradman, Lindwall, Miller, Hassett and Benaud
Member of JMAS, DMAS, FRAS and RTDAS

when you're winning, you have friendsscores and dozens, real friendswhen you're winning, never lonelywhen you keep winning

I was going to just change it to 2009/10 but it'd be a false title given the earlier posts in here so I've given you a generic title that I think fits the contents the best. Let me know if you want it changed to something else.

Thanks - yeah that's probably the best solution. Saves having to change it in the future as well.

Originally Posted by Samuel_Vimes

not afraid of pace inflation.

Gazi Tank's tactic to bat to eight and bowl to nine?

Yeah I realise I exaggerated some of the pace, but I guess it's all relative. Rubel, Shahadat and Mashrafe are significantly faster than the rest though and I think Rubel was clocked pretty close to 90mph in the World Twenty20. There are loads of bowlers I've put down as 'RFM' who probably bowl at about 75mph though.

And yes, Gazi have a ridiculous amount of batting and bowling. Shuvo could bat top five for some of the other sides, I had him down at nine in a side I thrashed out last night when bored, which also had eight frontline bowling options.

The sides will be without their players away with Bangladesh A for the start of the Twenty20 (squad listed above, scores to come shortly) and Abahani will be without the injured Mashrafe and Shakib for the whole tournament.

Sorry I haven't been able to keep this up to date. I'm at uni now and it's all work and play (first post of CW here for a long, long time). I'll do my best now that the T20 has started though, you need your diet of dire cricket to survive...

Tamim, dropped first ball, took his tally to 245 runs in five games, with three fifties. He smashed 26 off one over from Mehrab Hossain jnr. Earlier, Biman were reduced to 35-6 by left-arm seamer Emon.

Abahani prevailed in a clash of the Dhaka titans in an affair that revealed several notable sub-plots. Shakib (now continually referred to in the Bangladeshi press as 'the world's number one allrounder') made his comeback from injury and played a useful cameo; Tamim made further runs but was fined for an on-pitch spat with Robiul Islam; and Imrul Kayes, felled by an Emon Ahmed bouncer earlier on, returned with stitches on his forehead to guide Abahani towards the final.

riyad is turning out to be a pretty decent allrounder, starting to become very reliable with both bat and ball domestically, hopefully he can do it a bit more internationally. tamim has been in ridiculous form so far this season so no surprise he got more runs. happy with shamsur's performance, he's one to watch but he gets a bit because he doesn't always have the highest strike rate. imrul cameback with vengenace and got some quick runs, needs to do more of that to keep his place in the national squad, kapali has been doing really well with the ball since the return and mithun ali is back in the runs putting pressure on saghir hossain for the national teams back-up keeper.

A full house at Mirpur witnessed a thrilling, see-saw final. Chasing 145 to win, Abahani slipped to 82-5, with Imrul Kayes, Mahbubul Karim, Shakib Al Hasan and Rony Talukder all falling cheaply and, despite a period of consolidation, were left needing a further 41 from the final three overs. Cue Mohammad Rafique to roll back the years, taking Abdur Razzak for 23 off an over, including three consecutive sixes. The following over, Alok Kapali received similar treatment and Rafique finished the job by smashing the first ball of the final over over the ropes to bring up the fastest fifty of the tournament. Nasir Hossain defied his youth to support Rafique with a run-a-ball 31. Earlier, Nazimuddin and Shahriar Nafees put on 53 for Gazi's second wicket, after Mithun Ali was dismissed in the first over.

And some exciting news on overseas players: Mohammedan have confirmed the signing of Farveez Maharoof, Jehan Mubarak will wear Biman colours and Gazi Tank will field Hemang Badani (potentially very dangerous as a middle-order lynchpin). Meanwhile defending champions have signed Kerala’s Ajay Kudva. Who? Yes, quite…

Bizarrely, the New Age reports the news thus:

Abahani said they had intended to bring in Misbah ul Haque, who was recently dropped from the Pakistan team, but his national board refused to release him and asked the middle-order batsman to play in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy.

They also had an eye on West Indian batsman Lendl Simmons, but his recent performance did not impress them. Finding no other alternative Abahani roped in 33-year old Kudva, who scored 2,927 runs in first-class cricket at an average of 31.

Our man Ajay is clearly a better option than the very unimpressive Lendl Simmons…